Ollama

Ollama is a tool that allows users to run large language models (LLMs) directly on their own computers, making powerful AI technology accessible without relying on cloud services. It provides a user-friendly way to manage, deploy, and integrate LLMs, offering greater control, privacy, and customization compared to traditional cloud-based solutions.

Ollama was funded by Jared Friedman out of Y Combinator (YC). Founders Jeffrey Morgan and Michael Chiang wanted an easier way to run LLMs than having to do it in the cloud. In fact, they were previously founders of a startup project named Kitematic which was the early UI for Docker. Acquired by Docker, it was the precursor to Docker Desktop.

Installing it

Visit https://ollama.com/download and use the installer shell script.

Here is the install shell script at the time of writing (2025-06-18)

#!/bin/sh
# This script installs Ollama on Linux.
# It detects the current operating system architecture and installs the appropriate version of Ollama.

set -eu

red="$( (/usr/bin/tput bold || :; /usr/bin/tput setaf 1 || :) 2>&-)"
plain="$( (/usr/bin/tput sgr0 || :) 2>&-)"

status() { echo ">>> $*" >&2; }
error() { echo "${red}ERROR:${plain} $*"; exit 1; }
warning() { echo "${red}WARNING:${plain} $*"; }

TEMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d)
cleanup() { rm -rf $TEMP_DIR; }
trap cleanup EXIT

available() { command -v $1 >/dev/null; }
require() {
    local MISSING=''
    for TOOL in $*; do
        if ! available $TOOL; then
            MISSING="$MISSING $TOOL"
        fi
    done

    echo $MISSING
}

[ "$(uname -s)" = "Linux" ] || error 'This script is intended to run on Linux only.'

ARCH=$(uname -m)
case "$ARCH" in
    x86_64) ARCH="amd64" ;;
    aarch64|arm64) ARCH="arm64" ;;
    *) error "Unsupported architecture: $ARCH" ;;
esac

IS_WSL2=false

KERN=$(uname -r)
case "$KERN" in
    *icrosoft*WSL2 | *icrosoft*wsl2) IS_WSL2=true;;
    *icrosoft) error "Microsoft WSL1 is not currently supported. Please use WSL2 with 'wsl --set-version <distro> 2'" ;;
    *) ;;
esac

VER_PARAM="${OLLAMA_VERSION:+?version=$OLLAMA_VERSION}"

SUDO=
if [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ]; then
    # Running as root, no need for sudo
    if ! available sudo; then
        error "This script requires superuser permissions. Please re-run as root."
    fi

    SUDO="sudo"
fi

NEEDS=$(require curl awk grep sed tee xargs)
if [ -n "$NEEDS" ]; then
    status "ERROR: The following tools are required but missing:"
    for NEED in $NEEDS; do
        echo "  - $NEED"
    done
    exit 1
fi

for BINDIR in /usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin; do
    echo $PATH | grep -q $BINDIR && break || continue
done
OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR=$(dirname ${BINDIR})

if [ -d "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR/lib/ollama" ] ; then
    status "Cleaning up old version at $OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR/lib/ollama"
    $SUDO rm -rf "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR/lib/ollama"
fi
status "Installing ollama to $OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR"
$SUDO install -o0 -g0 -m755 -d $BINDIR
$SUDO install -o0 -g0 -m755 -d "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR/lib/ollama"
status "Downloading Linux ${ARCH} bundle"
curl --fail --show-error --location --progress-bar \
    "https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-${ARCH}.tgz${VER_PARAM}" | \
    $SUDO tar -xzf - -C "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR"

if [ "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR/bin/ollama" != "$BINDIR/ollama" ] ; then
    status "Making ollama accessible in the PATH in $BINDIR"
    $SUDO ln -sf "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR/ollama" "$BINDIR/ollama"
fi

# Check for NVIDIA JetPack systems with additional downloads
if [ -f /etc/nv_tegra_release ] ; then
    if grep R36 /etc/nv_tegra_release > /dev/null ; then
        status "Downloading JetPack 6 components"
        curl --fail --show-error --location --progress-bar \
            "https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-${ARCH}-jetpack6.tgz${VER_PARAM}" | \
            $SUDO tar -xzf - -C "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR"
    elif grep R35 /etc/nv_tegra_release > /dev/null ; then
        status "Downloading JetPack 5 components"
        curl --fail --show-error --location --progress-bar \
            "https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-${ARCH}-jetpack5.tgz${VER_PARAM}" | \
            $SUDO tar -xzf - -C "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR"
    else
        warning "Unsupported JetPack version detected.  GPU may not be supported"
    fi
fi

install_success() {
    status 'The Ollama API is now available at 127.0.0.1:11434.'
    status 'Install complete. Run "ollama" from the command line.'
}
trap install_success EXIT

# Everything from this point onwards is optional.

configure_systemd() {
    if ! id ollama >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        status "Creating ollama user..."
        $SUDO useradd -r -s /bin/false -U -m -d /usr/share/ollama ollama
    fi
    if getent group render >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        status "Adding ollama user to render group..."
        $SUDO usermod -a -G render ollama
    fi
    if getent group video >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        status "Adding ollama user to video group..."
        $SUDO usermod -a -G video ollama
    fi

    status "Adding current user to ollama group..."
    $SUDO usermod -a -G ollama $(whoami)

    status "Creating ollama systemd service..."
    cat <<EOF | $SUDO tee /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service >/dev/null
[Unit]
Description=Ollama Service
After=network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart=$BINDIR/ollama serve
User=ollama
Group=ollama
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
Environment="PATH=$PATH"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF
    SYSTEMCTL_RUNNING="$(systemctl is-system-running || true)"
    case $SYSTEMCTL_RUNNING in
        running|degraded)
            status "Enabling and starting ollama service..."
            $SUDO systemctl daemon-reload
            $SUDO systemctl enable ollama

            start_service() { $SUDO systemctl restart ollama; }
            trap start_service EXIT
            ;;
        *)
            warning "systemd is not running"
            if [ "$IS_WSL2" = true ]; then
                warning "see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/systemd#how-to-enable-systemd to enable it"
            fi
            ;;
    esac
}

if available systemctl; then
    configure_systemd
fi

# WSL2 only supports GPUs via nvidia passthrough
# so check for nvidia-smi to determine if GPU is available
if [ "$IS_WSL2" = true ]; then
    if available nvidia-smi && [ -n "$(nvidia-smi | grep -o "CUDA Version: [0-9]*\.[0-9]*")" ]; then
        status "Nvidia GPU detected."
    fi
    install_success
    exit 0
fi

# Don't attempt to install drivers on Jetson systems
if [ -f /etc/nv_tegra_release ] ; then
    status "NVIDIA JetPack ready."
    install_success
    exit 0
fi

# Install GPU dependencies on Linux
if ! available lspci && ! available lshw; then
    warning "Unable to detect NVIDIA/AMD GPU. Install lspci or lshw to automatically detect and install GPU dependencies."
    exit 0
fi

check_gpu() {
    # Look for devices based on vendor ID for NVIDIA and AMD
    case $1 in
        lspci)
            case $2 in
                nvidia) available lspci && lspci -d '10de:' | grep -q 'NVIDIA' || return 1 ;;
                amdgpu) available lspci && lspci -d '1002:' | grep -q 'AMD' || return 1 ;;
            esac ;;
        lshw)
            case $2 in
                nvidia) available lshw && $SUDO lshw -c display -numeric -disable network | grep -q 'vendor: .* \[10DE\]' || return 1 ;;
                amdgpu) available lshw && $SUDO lshw -c display -numeric -disable network | grep -q 'vendor: .* \[1002\]' || return 1 ;;
            esac ;;
        nvidia-smi) available nvidia-smi || return 1 ;;
    esac
}

if check_gpu nvidia-smi; then
    status "NVIDIA GPU installed."
    exit 0
fi

if ! check_gpu lspci nvidia && ! check_gpu lshw nvidia && ! check_gpu lspci amdgpu && ! check_gpu lshw amdgpu; then
    install_success
    warning "No NVIDIA/AMD GPU detected. Ollama will run in CPU-only mode."
    exit 0
fi

if check_gpu lspci amdgpu || check_gpu lshw amdgpu; then
    status "Downloading Linux ROCm ${ARCH} bundle"
    curl --fail --show-error --location --progress-bar \
        "https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-${ARCH}-rocm.tgz${VER_PARAM}" | \
        $SUDO tar -xzf - -C "$OLLAMA_INSTALL_DIR"

    install_success
    status "AMD GPU ready."
    exit 0
fi

CUDA_REPO_ERR_MSG="NVIDIA GPU detected, but your OS and Architecture are not supported by NVIDIA.  Please install the CUDA driver manually https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/"
# ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#rhel-7-centos-7
# ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#rhel-8-rocky-8
# ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#rhel-9-rocky-9
# ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#fedora
install_cuda_driver_yum() {
    status 'Installing NVIDIA repository...'
    
    case $PACKAGE_MANAGER in
        yum)
            $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install yum-utils
            if curl -I --silent --fail --location "https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$1$2/$(uname -m | sed -e 's/aarch64/sbsa/')/cuda-$1$2.repo" >/dev/null ; then
                $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER-config-manager --add-repo https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$1$2/$(uname -m | sed -e 's/aarch64/sbsa/')/cuda-$1$2.repo
            else
                error $CUDA_REPO_ERR_MSG
            fi
            ;;
        dnf)
            if curl -I --silent --fail --location "https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$1$2/$(uname -m | sed -e 's/aarch64/sbsa/')/cuda-$1$2.repo" >/dev/null ; then
                $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER config-manager --add-repo https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$1$2/$(uname -m | sed -e 's/aarch64/sbsa/')/cuda-$1$2.repo
            else
                error $CUDA_REPO_ERR_MSG
            fi
            ;;
    esac

    case $1 in
        rhel)
            status 'Installing EPEL repository...'
            # EPEL is required for third-party dependencies such as dkms and libvdpau
            $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-$2.noarch.rpm || true
            ;;
    esac

    status 'Installing CUDA driver...'

    if [ "$1" = 'centos' ] || [ "$1$2" = 'rhel7' ]; then
        $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install nvidia-driver-latest-dkms
    fi

    $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install cuda-drivers
}

# ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#ubuntu
# ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#debian
install_cuda_driver_apt() {
    status 'Installing NVIDIA repository...'
    if curl -I --silent --fail --location "https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$1$2/$(uname -m | sed -e 's/aarch64/sbsa/')/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb" >/dev/null ; then
        curl -fsSL -o $TEMP_DIR/cuda-keyring.deb https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$1$2/$(uname -m | sed -e 's/aarch64/sbsa/')/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
    else
        error $CUDA_REPO_ERR_MSG
    fi

    case $1 in
        debian)
            status 'Enabling contrib sources...'
            $SUDO sed 's/main/contrib/' < /etc/apt/sources.list | $SUDO tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/contrib.list > /dev/null
            if [ -f "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources" ]; then
                $SUDO sed 's/main/contrib/' < /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources | $SUDO tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/contrib.sources > /dev/null
            fi
            ;;
    esac

    status 'Installing CUDA driver...'
    $SUDO dpkg -i $TEMP_DIR/cuda-keyring.deb
    $SUDO apt-get update

    [ -n "$SUDO" ] && SUDO_E="$SUDO -E" || SUDO_E=
    DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive $SUDO_E apt-get -y install cuda-drivers -q
}

if [ ! -f "/etc/os-release" ]; then
    error "Unknown distribution. Skipping CUDA installation."
fi

. /etc/os-release

OS_NAME=$ID
OS_VERSION=$VERSION_ID

PACKAGE_MANAGER=
for PACKAGE_MANAGER in dnf yum apt-get; do
    if available $PACKAGE_MANAGER; then
        break
    fi
done

if [ -z "$PACKAGE_MANAGER" ]; then
    error "Unknown package manager. Skipping CUDA installation."
fi

if ! check_gpu nvidia-smi || [ -z "$(nvidia-smi | grep -o "CUDA Version: [0-9]*\.[0-9]*")" ]; then
    case $OS_NAME in
        centos|rhel) install_cuda_driver_yum 'rhel' $(echo $OS_VERSION | cut -d '.' -f 1) ;;
        rocky) install_cuda_driver_yum 'rhel' $(echo $OS_VERSION | cut -c1) ;;
        fedora) [ $OS_VERSION -lt '39' ] && install_cuda_driver_yum $OS_NAME $OS_VERSION || install_cuda_driver_yum $OS_NAME '39';;
        amzn) install_cuda_driver_yum 'fedora' '37' ;;
        debian) install_cuda_driver_apt $OS_NAME $OS_VERSION ;;
        ubuntu) install_cuda_driver_apt $OS_NAME $(echo $OS_VERSION | sed 's/\.//') ;;
        *) exit ;;
    esac
fi

if ! lsmod | grep -q nvidia || ! lsmod | grep -q nvidia_uvm; then
    KERNEL_RELEASE="$(uname -r)"
    case $OS_NAME in
        rocky) $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install kernel-devel kernel-headers ;;
        centos|rhel|amzn) $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install kernel-devel-$KERNEL_RELEASE kernel-headers-$KERNEL_RELEASE ;;
        fedora) $SUDO $PACKAGE_MANAGER -y install kernel-devel-$KERNEL_RELEASE ;;
        debian|ubuntu) $SUDO apt-get -y install linux-headers-$KERNEL_RELEASE ;;
        *) exit ;;
    esac

    NVIDIA_CUDA_VERSION=$($SUDO dkms status | awk -F: '/added/ { print $1 }')
    if [ -n "$NVIDIA_CUDA_VERSION" ]; then
        $SUDO dkms install $NVIDIA_CUDA_VERSION
    fi

    if lsmod | grep -q nouveau; then
        status 'Reboot to complete NVIDIA CUDA driver install.'
        exit 0
    fi

    $SUDO modprobe nvidia
    $SUDO modprobe nvidia_uvm
fi

# make sure the NVIDIA modules are loaded on boot with nvidia-persistenced
if available nvidia-persistenced; then
    $SUDO touch /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf
    MODULES="nvidia nvidia-uvm"
    for MODULE in $MODULES; do
        if ! grep -qxF "$MODULE" /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf; then
            echo "$MODULE" | $SUDO tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf > /dev/null
        fi
    done
fi

status "NVIDIA GPU ready."
install_success

Simply running it as a Docker Image

Although you can download or install it from the repo on GitHub https://github.com/ollama/ollama, you can also run it as a docker image ollama/ollama

However, I ran into multiple issues, and decided to go the straight install route instead.

First Issue: accommodate NVidia GPU

Because I have a GeForce RTX 4060 NVidia GPU, I had to install the NVidia Container Toolkit, and configure Docker to use the NVidia driver

curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey \
    | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg
curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list \
    | sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' \
    | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list
sudo apt-get update

Super User Problems

The docs advise to

(sudo) docker run -d --gpus=all -v ollama:/root/.ollama -p 11434:11434 --name ollama ollama/ollama

which clearly runs as root, however my Docker (Desktop) is running as non-root user, so although I previously fetched the image through Docker Desktop, the CLI command couldn't find it and downloaded another copy. And spit out additional errors:

Unable to find image 'ollama/ollama:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from ollama/ollama
13b7e930469f: Pull complete 
97ca0261c313: Pull complete 
2ace2f9dde9e: Pull complete 
41ea4d361810: Pull complete 
Digest: sha256:50ab2378567a62b811a2967759dd91f254864c3495cbe50576bd8a85bc6edd56
Status: Downloaded newer image for ollama/ollama:latest
40be284dab1709b74fa68d513f75c10239d7234a21d65aac1e80cbd743515498
docker: Error response from daemon: failed to create task for container: failed to create shim task: OCI runtime create failed: runc create failed: unable to start container process: error during container init: error running prestart hook #0: exit status 1, stdout: , stderr: Auto-detected mode as 'legacy'
nvidia-container-cli: initialization error: nvml error: driver/library version mismatch: unknown

The important part seems to be 'Auto-detected mode as legacy'

Running the image from Docker Desktop, with setting optons for ports and volumes, and copying the 'run' command spits out:

docker run --hostname=3f50cd4183bd --mac-address=02:42:ac:11:00:02 --env=PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin --env=LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/nvidia/lib:/usr/local/nvidia/lib64 --env=NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=compute,utility --env=NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all --env=OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0:11434 --volume=ollama:/root/.ollama --network=bridge -p 11434:11434 --restart=no --label='org.opencontainers.image.ref.name=ubuntu' --label='org.opencontainers.image.version=20.04' --runtime=runc -d ollama/ollama:latest

http://localhost:11434/ just reveals 'Ollama is running' in 'hello world' style.

In the docker-compose file there is supposed to be another container image accessible at port 3000 providing a webUI. This didn't happen.

Clearly, the full ollama setup is supposed to be run as 'root'. It is not designed to be run as a regular user who has docker or sudo / adm group membership.

Application Programming Interface